


without you i'll never be home

by ohjustpeachy



Series: Tony Stark Bingo Fills [16]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:42:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26068180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohjustpeachy/pseuds/ohjustpeachy
Summary: Tony melts, a little, and the words leave his mouth before he can stop them. “I like you,” he says, and it’s much too serious and far too earnest, but here they are, alone in Rhodey’s room, the one that’s come to feel like Tony’s, too, and Rhodey’s looking at him, like...Tony goes home with Rhodey for Thanksgiving break.
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Tony Stark
Series: Tony Stark Bingo Fills [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1601260
Comments: 12
Kudos: 149
Collections: Tony Stark Flash Bingo





	without you i'll never be home

**Author's Note:**

> for anon on tumblr, who asked for tony staying with rhodey, and mama rhodes side eyeing them for not getting together already, and for my tony stark flash bingo card, square: bed sharing

“Tony, I know you’re not just gonna stand there without giving me a hug, are you?” Rhodey’s mother fixes Tony with her best withering stare before breaking into a smile, wrapping him in a hug as Rhodey laughs and shakes his head. 

Tony isn’t sure when he got so comfortable going home with Rhodey during breaks from school. He just knows that for a long while he’d be on high alert whenever they arrived, on his best behavior, lest Rhodey’s mother see whatever was inside Tony that made Howard so hateful. And now, well... now his walls come down when he walks into the cozy, two-story house Rhodey grew up in. 

Now, he hugs Mama Rhodes tightly and with abandon, soaking in the soft, floral scent of her perfume, something light and distinctly maternal, and sighs into her shoulder. Now he feels like he’s home, more so than he ever had back in New York. 

“You’re too skinny,” Roberta tells him, clucking her tongue. “Don’t they feed you at that school? Lord knows the tuition is high enough.”

“Oh, there’s plenty of food,” Rhodey jumps in before Tony can say anything. “Only problem is you gotta go and get it to actually eat it. Turns out, when you spend all day in class, and all night in a lab, meals start to slip, right, Tones?”

This earns him a long look from Mama Rhodes. “You’re skinnier than last time, Tony Stark, and you don’t have weight to lose. Don’t worry, we’ll get some meat on those bones this week,” she promises. 

“I eat!” Tony says indignantly, because he has to at least try and defend himself. 

“Not enough,” Rhodey and his mother say in unison. 

Tony grumbles, but they don’t pay him any attention, instead hauling duffel bags and backpacks upstairs to Rhodey’s room where they’d be spending the next week. 

“We’re eating at six o’clock sharp!” Roberta yells up the stairs after them. “Do not fall asleep and make me come after you!”

*

They fall asleep. 

There’s something so soothing about Rhodey’s bed, especially after the long trip from MIT to his mother’s house that exhausts them both. It’s basically a routine now, with three Thanksgiving breaks behind them, to take an afternoon nap together on Rhodey’s bed. 

“I love your mom,” Tony told Rhodey before they drifted off. It’s still foreign to him, the way a family can be so... close. Close and happy were not words often associated with the Starks, that’s for sure. 

“Me too,” Rhodey said with a yawn. “She’s probably down there doubling whatever she’s making for dinner, trying to fatten you up.” Rhodey had poked Tony in the side, right by his ribs, and Tony had yelped, tucking his face in against a pillow to hide the blush that was no doubt making its way from his cheeks to his ears. They fell asleep shortly after, laying an acceptable, friendly distance from each other, until Tony rolls over in his sleep, curling himself in around Rhodey, their limbs tangling together.

Now, it’s going on six, and they blink at each other, almost shyly. There’s something between them now, something, Tony thinks, that has always been there, but is growing steadily stronger. 

“Uh,” Tony says, smoothly, extracting himself as best he can. 

Rhodey just nods, looking at Tony like he wants to say something, but, “I’m starving,” is all that comes out. 

*

Dinner is a relaxed affair, just the three of them until the rest of Rhodey’s family arrives in a few days. Mama Rhodes might just be the best cook Tony’s ever met, and he doesn’t need to be reminded to clean his plate. 

“So,” Roberta says as they eat, “Anyone special on the horizon, Tony?” She does this every time, always a little more pointed than the last, and Rhodey groans loudly before Tony has to say anything. Sometimes he thinks Roberta is a mind reader or something, that she can see right through him to the massive crush he has on her son. 

“Not again,” Rhodey says. He looks at his mother, eyes pleading, and they seem to have some kind of secret language thing going on, because she backs off pretty quickly. 

“I’m just curious! Both of you, so handsome and smart!”

Rhodey rolls his eyes at Tony across the table, as if to say, sorry about this, but Tony just shrugs. It’s nice having someone bug him about normal things like dating, rather than the status of his PhD applications or his latest projects.

“More bread?” Mama Rhodes offers, holding out a basket of bread that seemed to be regenerating as they ate. 

“I’m so full I might burst, but thank you,” Tony says. 

“Good! There’s pie in the kitchen, so save room,” she winks. 

Tony groans, because there’s no such thing as turning down Mama Rhodes’ homemade pie. 

Rhodey grins.

*

The next morning, Tony wakes up and Rhodey is nowhere to be found. The sheets are cool to the touch, and Tony rubs at his eyes before looking at his phone. It’s only eight o’clock, early for a day with no classes and no ROTC commitments. 

Tony swings his legs over the side of the bed and pads out of the room and down the stairs, hoping to find Rhodey in the living room, or in the kitchen with a cup of coffee in his hands. He’s much better at the whole being a morning person thing than Tony. It’s one of the many ways they balanced each other out. 

Instead, Tony freezes in the hallway by the kitchen. Rhodey isn’t the only early-riser in the house. Robert’s awake, too, and talking in a low, hushed voice about _him_. 

“I just see how happy he makes you. And how you look at each other! You look at Tony like that boy hung the moon, and you’re not even gonna tell him?”

“Mama, you know I—”

Tony’s stomach tenses, his whole body going ice cold. She knows he what? Deep down, Tony knows he should leave, go back upstairs, pretend he never heard any of this, but the bigger, much more selfish part of him is dying to know if after all this time, Rhodey feels the same way Tony does. 

“You don’t want to ruin the best friendship you ever had, I know, I know. I don’t blame you. I just don’t want you to shy away from something —someone— that could make you really happy, baby.” 

Tony’s heart thuds in his chest, and he claps a hand over it like that might slow it down, muffle the sound, something. He doesn’t want to ruin their friendship. 

“You’re right, I know you’re right,” Rhodey is saying, and Tony turns and hightails it back upstairs before he can do something crazy, like blurt out that nothing Rhodey did could change the way Tony feels about him. 

Twenty long minutes later, the door to Rhodey’s room creaks open, and there he is, two mugs of coffee in hand as he peers at Tony. Tony does his best to appear like he’s sleeping, though he knows Rhodey knows him way too well for that.

“I know you’re up, that fake sleep routine never works on me, Tony,” Rhodey says, nudging Tony with his foot. His voice, that low, exasperated tone, has a sliver of fondness in it, though. 

“Do I smell coffee?” Tony says, pulling himself upright.

“Nothing gets by you, huh?” Rhodey says, handing him the cup with a smile. “My mom says not to make it a habit, coffee in bed, but she’d make an exception today.”

Tony grins, not mentioning that he knows why Mama Rhodes had a change of heart this morning. 

“Hey,” Tony says, unable to keep his mouth shut another minute. 

“Hey,” Rhodey repeats, sitting on the edge of his bed, foot bouncing.

“You’re the best, you know that right?”

“Obviously. I put some cinnamon in there for you,” Rhodey says. 

Tony melts, a little, and the words leave his mouth before he can stop them. “I like you,” he says, and it’s much too serious and far too earnest, but here they are, alone in Rhodey’s room, the one that’s come to feel like Tony’s, too, and Rhodey’s looking at him, like...

“You’re my best friend,” Tony continues, because apparently now that he started he can’t stop. “I don’t want to change that, but... I may have... been having feelings for you since. I don’t know when, actually. Since I met you, probably, but I’m slow on the uptake, so....”

“Tony...”

“Anyway, I was thinking... we should go to dinner, sometime. Like a date. If you want. I hear I have to put some meat on my bones, so really, you’d be doing me a favor, and—”

But then Rhodey’s kissing him, long and hard and with the ferocity of someone who’s wanted this for a long, long time. 

“So,” Tony says, breath evening out as he rests his forehead against Rhodey’s. “Is that a yes?”

Rhodey’s answering yes is muffled by Tony’s lips, but he gets the idea.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm omg-just-peachy on tumblr, come say hi!


End file.
